00:00:00:00 - 00:00:33:23

Unknown

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Making Creative Marketing show. And if you're a business owner, if you're an entrepreneur marketer or content creator, where you have one hand in the marketing side and one hand in the content creation side, or you're just struggling to find a balance between either one of those, you've found the right show. So this show is really going to be focusing on everything in between because content creation and marketing, they just they collide, you know, hand in hand every single time.

00:00:33:23 - 00:01:05:16

Unknown

And sometimes they don't mix. Sometimes, you know, one is just waiting on the other. And it could just be you doing both of those things. So it's just, you know, your left and right side of the brain trying to work together to make something that is beneficial for yourself and your business without self imploding. So if that sounds like you, you're in good company because I am in fact a business owner who runs a small creative team that develops content for for businesses and brands and more about, you know, me later.

00:01:05:18 - 00:01:34:22

Unknown

But what I want to do kind of with this this first episode here is just give you this nice little mental reframe of I love listening to audiobooks. Okay. I love listening to like, sci fi fantasy adventure novels. I'll give you examples of those later. But I love series. Like, I love really long books, like series that have like 14 books.

00:01:35:00 - 00:01:55:12

Unknown

Those are great. And the reason I love them is like the character development and the plot and how everything changes and how, you know, they evolve and you get more contextual information about like who they were, you know, before the story even picked up. But when you first start these series and when you first start these books, you're just drop straight into the middle of the book.

00:01:55:12 - 00:02:09:20

Unknown

You don't know who this person is, you don't know what they're doing, you don't know where this world is, like what's happening in it. And you just keep reading and you and you, like, learn to like kind of fall in love with the story a little bit, hopefully. And that's kind of how we're just going to start this.

00:02:09:20 - 00:02:32:19

Unknown

Right. Like, not too much about us. Don't have any, like, super contextual information as this episode has episode one of the podcast. And we're just going to kind of take it from here and hopefully we provide enough content, enough levity and character and, you know, connection to keep you around for the following episodes. So today's episode Content marketing, how do you start?

00:02:32:21 - 00:02:51:19

Unknown

How do you maybe restart if you've been in business long enough? Like me, you have had iterations of what you would call restarting. Maybe not a dead stop, but like you're like, man, like it's time to re-energize the system of what we've what we've created. And you could say that about any system in your in your business.

00:02:51:19 - 00:03:13:20

Unknown

Probably at least I can for mine. So as we as we kind of move through this episode, the starting and restart really is finding the linchpin in all of this. Okay, so like, the linchpin is like the one piece that's really keeping everything from moving along. And for for a lot of people, that could just be the filming of it, right?

00:03:13:21 - 00:03:38:04

Unknown

Like, you have the idea, you can edit, but like filming just takes so long and you're just not accomplishing what you want or what your what your sights are set on is is too short sighted and it's not developing enough content and enough value in the long term for you to feel like it's worth it, to keep to keep producing and making this content that gets pushed out for your marketing.

00:03:38:06 - 00:04:07:00

Unknown

So we're going to start there. Right. So if you could sit down as a business owner and you're you're thinking to yourself, like, okay, what is what is my linchpin? Okay. A good example is for me is we have a very small team. It's it's me. Sometimes we hire other contractors here in there for projects, but we have a video editor who's remote and we have what I would call, like my my marketing assistant, who is remote as well.

00:04:07:02 - 00:04:26:03

Unknown

And so we never see each other. It's just all online meetings. And so the content creation point for us is me. And so I have to find a way in this time that I'm a dad and that the time that I'm trying to stay physically fit and then run the business and be prosperous and do all these things right, you're trying to do it all.

00:04:26:05 - 00:04:54:06

Unknown

How do I manage to make content for my business that does more than just show up on Instagram? And how do I do it practically and sustainably? Well, here as this master guru that I am, which I will never proclaim to be, that was sarcasm. So as we look at this linchpin, I am the linchpin, right? I am the person who needs to be creating content on some sort of consistent basis.

00:04:54:08 - 00:05:24:17

Unknown

And it as somebody who can easily create, you know, 40 to 50 pieces of content in an hour with somebody. It is extremely aggravating for me to create content on my own. And so I have set out to work with other photog offers and videographers on a consistent basis. And I am, you know, whether you're paying them, like I literally just paid for somebody to help me do like a reboot, right.

00:05:24:17 - 00:05:55:21

Unknown

To like, really get started because my team has the ability to take all the content that I give them, edit it, post it, give me copy like the linchpin is in me, and then creating this consistency within the business to deploy my, you know, my employees, my, my other creatives. I hate seeing employees, but like they are my team and I am the linchpin that is keeping my business from growing and the best way that I have found to do that is to give that responsibility to somebody else, right?

00:05:55:21 - 00:06:22:21

Unknown

To be more accountable to somebody else. Because we we know, as you know, individuals, parents or, you know, business owners, we will put ourselves last, but we will always put our clients first. We'll put somebody else first. We're much more willing to compromise our time than somebody else's. And so making our time accountable to somebody else, just like a personal trainer or whoever is is the best step.

00:06:23:00 - 00:07:03:08

Unknown

Because what I found is that if you do this, if you start giving your time to somebody else, you're like, man. And you're like, I don't know if I can afford that. I don't know if that's something I'm willing to take on like it is. And it doesn't always have to be a forever thing, but to get you in a system, to get you to start developing the system that allows you to outgrow this initial structure, this is the best place that I've found, not just for obviously my clients because that's what I do for them, but for us personally is the best way to start is to start developing this relationship, to do

00:07:03:08 - 00:07:38:04

Unknown

this and this. Everybody doesn't have to do this by any means, but this is essentially what helps you because it introduces one other person to this. And if, you know, maybe if your goal is to stay a solopreneur, then, you know, maybe this doesn't apply as much to you. Okay. But if you're looking for partners, if you're looking for a content partner in your business, you don't ever want to have to hire them as like a W-2 employee or whatever, but like, you're willing to partner with them, pay for their service, but they work very closely with your business.

00:07:38:06 - 00:08:02:22

Unknown

This is a great start for it, and this person that you hire right out of the gate may not be that person forever. It may just be for the next month, for the next quarter. It doesn't have to be your forever person, but this is the kind of relationship that you want to develop. And so if you're if you're sitting here and you're asking yourself like, okay, like, I don't really have a huge budget for this, what can I afford?

00:08:03:00 - 00:08:30:23

Unknown

Well, if you are a realtor, if your own a bakery, if you own an online shop, like paying for this on some consistent basis can look very different. There are, you know, people who are just starting out who are photographers, who want to get into the video space of shooting B-roll and B-roll is literally just essentially accent what I call accent detail shots of you doing something right.

00:08:30:23 - 00:09:01:01

Unknown

There's no audio. You're not talking to the camera. You don't even have to be looking at the camera. Your face doesn't even have to be in it. If you don't know what B-roll is. That's that's it. And if you don't know what B-roll is, you can just go on basically Instagram. And that's everything that's trending so that is a great way to start, is to get that relationship of like, I'll do this once a month and once a month may not be enough in the beginning for you to create enough content to fill what you think your needs are.

00:09:01:03 - 00:09:24:17

Unknown

Okay. And what what I mean is like, you might want to post 30 reels in 30 days, but your system doesn't support the outcome. Okay. And and that's one thing. As a business owner, as a service provider, that, you know, you have to learn and you have to explain to clients and even to yourself is that your system does not support that kind of outcome.

00:09:24:20 - 00:09:51:09

Unknown

It doesn't it doesn't support those kind of results. So how do you engineer something that A isn't 100% heavily on you and B, how do you make it consistent without it being such a heavy lift rate? So, for example, if you went out and hired a photographer and you're like, Hey, I'd love some photos, but I'd also love to do video.

00:09:51:11 - 00:10:11:20

Unknown

And there are probably, you know, maybe they're going to be like, Hey, I don't really do a whole lot of video. I'm like, Listen, if if your camera's good enough, that's fine. But if you feel comfortable doing this and your name doesn't have to be attached to it, But if you would like to explore, if you'd like to maybe expand your service offerings, I would love to pay for these photos.

00:10:11:20 - 00:10:32:20

Unknown

But if you could take my phone or your camera and just capture these shots for me, right. Have a set list of ideas to come up with them. Like depending on what their skill set is to be like, Hey, this is what I need. Because what you need will evolve based off of, you know, what what you already have.

00:10:32:20 - 00:10:55:20

Unknown

If you don't already have a content library, a series of clips that you can easily repurpose and, and edit together to, to speak to some other point that you're trying to make. And you know, a post that is a great way to start. And you know, this whole conversation that we've been having is mainly talking about short form content, right?

00:10:55:20 - 00:11:28:23

Unknown

Like we're mainly talking about, you know, reels and tiktoks and that kind of stuff. But if you're looking at YouTube and you're looking and maybe doing Pinterest or, you know, something along those lines that doesn't speak to short form video, but maybe, you know, some other variation, this is where setting up your system to support that like a long form video is difficult and the strategies to deploy long form, long form video and be successful on YouTube is difficult.

00:11:29:01 - 00:11:53:12

Unknown

And so a lot of people that we have like console calls with will look at this and you're going to be they're going to be like, I just don't know where to start. Like there's too many hurdles we've tried before. We've been unsuccessful. We don't know what the problem is. And so they stop creating content because it's been unsuccessful in the approach that I've always seen is like, keep, keep the system moving.

00:11:53:12 - 00:12:17:15

Unknown

Don't let the system stop. But we can re-energize the system with a different approach. Now, if the system's completely broken, sure, But more often than not, like there's no real system there. So it's either developing it for the first time or just making tweaks because where we've found in this whole scenario of trying to to work with somebody else's schedule, right.

00:12:17:15 - 00:12:40:04

Unknown

Like, I know maybe you're sitting here and you're like. Kirkman like, I can't work with somebody else's schedule months to hectic, like, you know, I don't know. I have showings or I have appointments, I have Zoom calls, I have all these things that is the trick to establishing a very secure system of producing content and analyzing your marketing.

00:12:40:09 - 00:13:06:01

Unknown

And I would tie those two together, your content creation and analyzing your marketing and statistics. I would tie those two pieces together if possible at all. And so what do I mean by that is if whoever you're partnering with be like, I would also sit down with them or find somebody else who sits down on a consistent basis to go over them.

00:13:06:03 - 00:13:32:09

Unknown

And what what does that even look like? So you get together, right? So say you've had your first shoot, you shot B-roll, you didn't love it, right? And you're not here's here's the expectation. This first shoot is not going to be everything. It's not going to be great. It's your goal is to make it mediocre. And that sounds terrible, but the goal is to be mediocre in that you're satisfied with some of the stuff that you've got.

00:13:32:09 - 00:14:10:12

Unknown

But like some of it wasn't great. But it's your goal to now take that content and see if you can make it better, right? Like, can you use that? Is it bad? Because as business owners, as creatives, as marketers, we all have this idea in our head of what we want this content to look like. Now, the reason I say we want to pair together the review of this content in the making of this content in some way, shape or form is because there are times where we are wrong with the content that we want to produce and the content that you know, your audience wants to see does not drive.

00:14:10:14 - 00:14:37:20

Unknown

And that's a whole that's multiple podcast episodes later. But that's why the review of it is key because it's your job to take that content that you get from that first. You use it to the best of your ability, archive it, take notes, notice how it performs. How useful was it? And that's when you go back and you make an iteration into the consistency of showing up and the consistency of paying for it.

00:14:37:22 - 00:14:57:15

Unknown

It allows you to execute and create more content in a shorter period of time with help like that is key. And if it's your spouse, like that's a hack, that's just a life hack. Like if you have a spouse who is willing to dedicate one evening, I mean, if you have kids, I know it's impossible, so I pay somebody else.

00:14:57:15 - 00:15:20:09

Unknown

But if you have a spouse or a best friend or somebody that you can meet with on a consistent basis to exchange some sort of mutual benefit value for them or even partnering up with another business owner like it's you both have the same struggle. So you're like, hey, like, let's work together. Like, let's do this. Once you've done that and you keep coming back to like, Hey, this is what worked.

00:15:20:09 - 00:15:47:10

Unknown

Hey, this is what worked. This is what worked for me. Like tying together mutual goals in the end, here is is great. So it doesn't matter if it's another business owner. It doesn't matter if it's the photographer who's looking to take on and expand their services because reviewing it with them will let them know like, I should shoot it this way because it will help me get better results and that will therefore help me sell additional services.

00:15:47:12 - 00:16:12:15

Unknown

So the starting and restarting of this content is is really looking at a system basis, like how do I consistently do this, be accountable to somebody else and tie those those actions that are happening to those appointments, meaning, hey, we're going to look at these five things. It doesn't have to be long. Guys like this does not have to be in our our review of your content.

00:16:12:15 - 00:16:39:06

Unknown

It just needs to be reviewed enough that you value it, reviewed enough that you can make improvements to it and reviewed enough that you feel as though progress is being made because it is in the review of statistics, it is in the review of your content that you're like, Yeah, I could have done that better in the review of that is what allows you to make better adjustments to the systems that you're you're trying to build.

00:16:39:08 - 00:17:04:16

Unknown

So the more often that you can get that kind of feedback, the more successful you're going to be by far. So that's, that's a lot to kind of get you started. And if you don't have that appointment already, like that's, that's kind of like your actionable step, I guess, for this episode. And just, you know, some couple last anecdotes here to make that hopefully successful for you is, you know, value that time with them.

00:17:04:17 - 00:17:29:20

Unknown

Come prepared, come with ideas. They can be bullet points. You know, they can be Pinterest boards. I love Pinterest. So like I always save B-roll shots. I always share like saved, like general, just like moods and and stuff like that. So and then just, you know, doing that, like, that's, that's the basic building blocks of a system is like, okay, I'm going to dedicate 15 minutes to, to planning this before my next shoot.

00:17:29:20 - 00:17:59:21

Unknown

And I know that from this shoot, these are the deliverables that I want. Like that content is going here. It's going to my Pinterest, it's going to build my Google Google Drive Archive of B-roll shots like you know, where that content is going. And that's and that's a good step because a lot of people will get that content, look at it, say that they don't like it, never use it, never get the feedback and never go back to improving that content.

00:17:59:23 - 00:18:23:15

Unknown

So that's kind of it there, guys. That's where we're going to wrap up the episode. And if you guys have any questions, you can follow us over at the Maitreyi Company in That's our Instagram and that's kind of where we're going to be launching it, at least for now. We may end up starting a, an Instagram solely for the podcast, but for now we're just going to be rolling it out there.

00:18:23:16 - 00:18:38:16

Unknown

So if you guys need anything, reach out to us there. Otherwise make sure you guys subscribe. I know we don't have a whole lot of track record, but if you're joining us and you enjoy this live, a short review and we'll catch on the next one.